JBlog News

Thursday, August 14, 2014

Delicious Salad at Mamilla Mall and Memories of Mamilla of Old

When my cousin, his wife and I were looking for a place for lunch in Mamilla Mall, which was perfectly convenient after walking through the Old City and their first visit to the Kotel, We noticed Roladin Bakery Café, phone 972 2-623-1553. I had never eaten there before. But most Israeli dairy places offer fantastic salads which was what we had wanted.

Following the principle of ordering something I wouldn't/couldn't make at home, I took salad that featured string-beans, mushrooms and cheese. It didn't disappoint, not one bite. It was as tasty as it looked.

They ate a lighter meal, sharing the Israeli Salad which had felafel. It seemed just right to suggest that to him, since I knew that his late father loved to go to the felafel places on Main Street, Flushing, NY. Of course the felafel they had was nothing like what my Uncle Izzy would have remembered from his days here in the Palmach, but he was on my mind that lunch.

Honestly, the Mamilla Street of today isn't the one I remember from our early days in Israel in 1970-71 when we lived in the Old City. From our vantage on the restaurant's terrace, I could see the super-posh apartments but strained my memory for Levi's Makolet where we used to shop. I explained how during the nineteen years that the Old City and eastern Jerusalem were occupied by the Jordanians, 1948-67, this area had been a dangerous slum. The dangers were from the Jordanian snipers who periodically shot at the Jewish Israeli neighborhood. And no, the United Nations never established "fact-finding commissions" to investigate the Jordanian violence against innocent Israeli civilians.
The prices were standard for this sort of restaurant, but the menu was more interesting. Yes, I recommend it.